the are neither honorable, nor noble. The are not prey or predator, simply "vermin".
A rat will take what it needs, leave the rest unfit to use, and trail filth and disease as it's only quantifiable output
I think it might be interesting to talk about rats,
Invasive Animals in Florida:
Based on estimates of the number of invasive rats in the US and the damage they cause to crops: $19 billion/yr in damage. In addition, rats cause fires by gnawing electric wires, pollute foodstuffs, and act as vectors of several diseases, including salmonellosis and leptospirosis.
Here is the dictionaries definition:
Rat
noun, interjection, verb, rat·ted, rat·ting.
–noun
1. any of several long-tailed rodents of the family Muridae, of the genus Rattus and related genera, distinguished from the mouse by being larger.
2. any of various similar or related animals.
3. Slang . a scoundrel.
4. Slang .
a. a person who abandons or betrays his or her party or associates, especially in a time of trouble.
b. an informer.
c. a scab laborer.
5. Slang . a person who frequents a specified place: a mall rat; gym rats.
6. a pad with tapered ends formerly used in women's hair styles to give the appearance of greater thickness.
–interjection
7. rats, Slang . (an exclamation of disappointment, disgust, or disbelief.)
–verb (used without object)
8. Slang .
a. to desert one's party or associates, especially in a time of trouble.
b. to turn informer; squeal: He ratted on the gang, and the police arrested them.
c. to work as a scab.
9. to hunt or catch rats.
–verb (used with object)
10. to dress (the hair) with or as if with a rat.
—Idiom
11. smell a rat, to suspect or surmise treachery; have suspicion: After noting several discrepancies in his client's story, the attorney began to smell a rat.
I did a search and the only thing that came up for swamp rat was; the Australian Swamp Rat (Rattus lutreolus) is a species of rat native to the area around Melbourne. They currently live primarily in the outer urban areas East of Melbourne.
More to come........
Last edited by Highplains Drifter; 02-04-2011 at 03:22 AM.
the are neither honorable, nor noble. The are not prey or predator, simply "vermin".
A rat will take what it needs, leave the rest unfit to use, and trail filth and disease as it's only quantifiable output
Rats have no scruples, the mating system is best described as polyandrous. Social animals, rats tend to breed in large groups. Once a female enters her six-hour estrus period, she may mate as many as five-hundred times with competing males...... Incest means nothing to a Rat, they are sexually mature at five weeks and look out sisters ,Mom. and of course daughter...... After mating the male abandons the female and doesn't help with any of the raising of the litter, that's easy to figure out.... Rats are nocturnal or most active active after dark, I myself have seen this pattern here.
More to come........
A lot of "tramp" linemen, union or non, have the morals of an alley cat and drink like fish......hell, a lot of us utility pukes are about the same.....
Of course there are exceptions.
I've been a union member for almost 20 years, and I find this whole thread in bad taste.
Just wanted to go on record with that.
I've got no issues with a man feeding his family-- that's honorable.
I don't have issues with non-union hands taking so much pride in their so-called "freedom"; if that's mostly due to misinformation and misunderstanding what unions really are.
It's not worth offending the majority of non-union hands and further poisoning their minds to unions just to berate one ignorant asshole in particular.
This is not how to win them over......
and you will never change an ignorant asshole.
This is just my opinion- take it or leave it.....We'll all be friends either way.
Boomer you might be right, but did you know that rats are so nocturnal that you don't see them come out mostly between the hours of 10pm to 1am. (wonder what time it is on the east coast?) Also rats live in a pure socialistic society and political economist actually study them to understand socialism.
Last edited by Highplains Drifter; 02-04-2011 at 11:33 PM.
Ratty Phrases
drowned rat : to look like one, indicating a pretty roughed up and tired appearance. A drowned anything looks fairly miserable but I guess being rat give it that extra touch of pathetic misery.
gutter rat : slang for a homeless street child, probably coined by some wealthy jerk who thought he was being amusing.
mall rats : youth who spend most of their time hanging out in malls doing nothing in general
Pied Piper of Hamelin : A legendary/mythical figure who was paid to drive away the rats from the German city of Hamelin during the medieval era. Playing his pipe, he lured them to the water where they all drowned. Demanding payment for his service, the cheapskate citypeople refused to pay him. So he played his pipe and lured the children of the town into a magical cave which closed and neither he nor the children were ever seen again by the town. Where he probably put them to work in sweatshops making "Pied Piper" pipes and plush rat toys.
Rats! : exclamation of dismay
rat's arse : as in "I don't give a rat's arse!", meaning you couldn't care less. Obviously a rat's arse isn't that much of a desirable item.
rat faced : to posess a narrow face with a pointy nose, beady eyes, and sometimes prominent front teeth.
rat fink : someone who betrays the trust of compatriots by giving vital information to their enemies. Also known as a "stool pigeon", a reference to that other natural scourge of human megatropolises.
rat hole : description of a place of residence declaring it to resemble the digs of a rat, complete with piles of belongings which threaten to topple over and smother the occupant.
rat king : a condition where several rats inhabiting cramped quarters (usually in large subterranean wild rat colonies) live so close together their tails become tangled and grow together. Unable to escape their knotted tails, the rest of colony feeds and maintains these invalids.
rat's nest : as in "You hair looks like rat's nest!", in other terms, a big mess. Usually applied to hair which has been ratted.
rat pack : slang for a group of young upstarts, most famously referring to the Las Vegas entertainment coalition of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Sammy Davis Jr. and probably some other crooners also enjoyed lots of alcohol back when they were all young and not dead.
rat race : nickname to refer to the frenzied modern pace of life where workers struggle over top of one another for meagre gains and excessive stress.
rats from a sinking ship : according to lore, you can always tell when the ship is sinking because the rats are leaving. This is usually true because the rats occupy the lower bilge levels, where the water would appear first, thus alerting them first and starting the rodent evacuation. Used to describe when people are leaving a situation in a mass movement, indicating imminent destruction.
rat tail : a hair style adornment where a little pigtail hangs down off the back of the neck of an otherwise short haircut, giving the impressive that a rodent has crawled into your anterior cranium. The rat tail coiffure often leads to more hardcore styling mistakes like the mullet.
rat tail comb : a comb with a thin, pointy, tapered handle used for various styling tricks.
ratted hair : the practive of backcombing hair until it becomes a knotted, static mess.
Rattenkrieg : "Rat War" in German. The period of fighting during WW2 which pitted invading Nazi German forces against the defending Russians, battle taking place in Russian cities where the urban setting restricted troop manoeuvrability and forced skirmishes in close quarters with soldiers holed up in buildings and snipers on the roofs. The Germans compared it to rats fighting with one another in the large Russian apartment towers.
rat trap : slang for incredibly run-down and dangerous rental housing where the the residents lives are in danger (or at least very depressed) and rats often inhabit the walls.
ratty : a condition of shabbiness giving the impression of being chewed on by rats.
smell a rat : to suspect the involvement of a traitor in your midst. A reference to the fact that it's pretty easy to smell if a rat has been in your stuff "marking territory" all over it.
More to come......
Thing is, I couldn't care less about who is union or non-union on here. I've never REALLY understood why some union folks tend to call non-union folks RATS!? I've seen ALOT of union guys do some of the rattyist shit and turn around and belittle a non-union guy. It pisses me off when threads like this are started just to belittle another lineman.